The Billboard 1909-02-06

SE) PRICE TEN CENTS FIFTY-SIX PAGES, AEociseDjeD't Weekly Volume XXL No. 6. CINCINNATI-NEW YORK-CHICAGO February 6, 1909, GEORGE C WARREN, Manager McVicker's Theatre, Chicago (See p«te 17 ) Why I Wouldn’t Be An ‘Independent’ i ■ - 1 This is the Time for Plain Speaking. Here is Dose No. 2 and I Want Every Exhibitor to Read it Thoughtfully! 1 was ur^ed and begged to join the so-called “independ- Not onlv that, but BEGINNING THIS WEEK I •ent ” movement. WILL BUY MORE NEM’ FILMS FOR EACH OF MY I am not violating; anyone’s confidence in telling you so. NINE OFFICES, AND I WILL BUY THEM FROM ALL - All the renters knew it, the manufacturers knew it and OF THE DIFFERENT COMPANIES LICENSED BY scores of exhit)itnrs knew it. THE PATENTS CO. WHY DID 1 REFUSE TO JOIN IT? This not only gives you a greater selection of new sub¬ jects than ever, but it also furnishes a champion for your The answer is of vital interest to every exhibitor. cause instead of compelling you to fight another man’s In the first place, I looked into the merits and demerits battles. •of both sides of the case. Look at the renters who have signed. 1 took so much time investigating that I w’as the last to sign the contract offered by Thomas Edison Look at those who have not. and the Motion Picture Patents (\). Compare them. I found that if I joined the “independents,” I am not the mouth-piece of the Motion I would not be independent at all. Picture Patents (!o. I have not consulted I would not be able to supply my cus¬ them about this advertisement or any other. tomers with so manv good films —AND GOOD But it is only just that you should know the I FILMS ARE THE HEART AND SOUL OF tnith about the situation, and Pm doggoned MOVING PICTURE SUCCESS. glad to have the distinction of being the first Su(*h a course would have ruined scores of to tell it. my customers, for you know as w’ell as I do I have lost customers by signing the Edison that your theatre could not last long without contract, but for every one I have lost I a big variety of subjects. have gained more than three ! You know also that the American films have taken the These figures are actually taken from my books, and lead in the moving picture game and that the houses licensed they give you a fair idea of what other exhibitors think of by Edison are the ones who produce real,genuine headliners! the proposition. If I had joined the “independents” I would have been absolutely dependent on the size of your pocketbook, and Whatever you do, don’t be bulldozed or bluffed or scared into joining one side of the dispute or the other. your ability to back me up for months and perhaps years Use your good, common sense. Reason it out. Look to in a lawsuit. the future as well as the present. In other words— On the other hand, by signing the Patents Co.’s con¬ tract I gained lor you and for myself absolute protection. “BE SURE YOU’RE RIGHT! THEN GO AHEAD!” CARL LAEVIMLE, President THE LAEMMLE FILM SERVICE Headquarters, 196-198 Lake Street, CHICAGO. -BIG HLJSTI..ING OF'F'ICES IN- OMAHA, NEB. MEMPHIS, TENN. MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH. PORTLAND, ORE. MONTREAL, QUEBEC. EVANSVILLE, IND. WINNIPEG, MANITOBA. I am a Jobber of Power’s Machines. 1 Mil Ml '* V.VI St'.V.* L\Vv7-4AMuPikftlMl2riM|ij&aAS««^ olume XXI. No. 6. CINCINNATI—NEW YORK—CHICAGO February 6, 1909. fiVFioNS Of The Stbi On Arouseroeot bife asa Exsvironr PRIES S) itkNEai^ “The biggest minstrel troupe I ever saw and the last real big show of "F^ver since then I have been a bit shaky on this doorkeeping job. Do¬ lts kind I ever expect to see. was given at the tJrand Opera House during you blame me?” the season of 1889-90," said the man with the collection of theatrical pro- Another says: "I..iist winter brought my queerest experience. It wa.s grams. “It was a combination min- with a youngster whose eagie eye will either land him in penitentiary or the ^It-A VA strel show consisting of two entire Hall of Fame some day. He came up to me and said: companies and the cream of another “ ‘I’ve got an important me.ssage to whisper to uncle. He’s in the front that had been touring under the direc¬ seat, and told me to come if his brother took a turn for the worse.’ tion of William S. Cleveland, now con- “He looked so innocent 1 let him in. Next night 1 saw him standing ducting the Prudential Vaudeville Kx- I in front of the theatre, at a safe distance from my toe, however change. There were thirty comedians, “Say.Sav. there.’ he called out, tauntingly, ’any more kids around with twenty singers, thirty Japs, forty mu- anxious uncles down front?’ ’’ sicians, an executive staff of twenty - and extra stage hands galore. The Augustus Thomas, the piplaywright, told in a recent speech of a hunting orchestra was culled from three I trip he had taken in the South. They were after coons and possunis, but sources, the regular house orchestra and two minstrel bands. the onl>'onlv trail ihthe dog.s struck was one which made them put th“;r tails “The end men and comedians were Billy Emerson, Willis P. Sweatnam. _' ___ between their leg.s and turn for home. Billy Rice. Luke Schoolcraft, Crawford Brothers, the Nunns, Hanley and “Just what does ti polecat look Jarvis, Abbott and Crotty, Frazer and Bunnell. Burt Shepard, Ed. Marble. f like?” Mr. Thomas tusked one of hLs Harry McKi.-^sen—nearly all of them capital singers. Other star singers on nejro guoie;. the bill were Banks Winter. W. E. Nankeville, Raymond Shaw, Jimmy Norrie “A polecat, boss? Why, a polecat’s and D. Tomasso. Eddie Fox, the highest salaried orchestra leader of sone iin’ like a kitten, only pieUier. his class, wielded the baton. The town was billed like a circus. The street i»T^/ n? Yes. a polecat - a hettp |iretiicr'u a had been excavated three or four blocks, so that Barney Fagan’s electrical 7/^ kitten, ain't it, Sam?” he saitl, turn¬ effects could be properly displayed. Seats scheduled at 50 cents were selling ing to another negro for corrobora¬ for $2 and >3. It was one great night. ,g''.\i tion. “Emerson wound up the first part. Sweatnam, Rice. Schoolcraft and the Stirn did not seetn so sure. He he.s- rest of the stars had scored tremendously. Emerson had to follow the great- Rated a moment, est collection of burnt cork comedians and singers ever gathered together “\\ell,’’“Well,” he rreplied, scratching his wool, “it’s always been mah conten¬ on one stage. But Emerson had been laying up for this particular night, fiontion diitdat handsonhandsome is as handsome do.” Although he had complained of being in bad voice, Cleveland knew Emerson had something up his sleeve. His famous Sunflower song was received with “About the 1lazie.-t man on record,” says Fred Niblo, the globe-trotter. the usual amount of applause. Then he began giving imitations of the “comes to light in a reminiscence of the War of the Rebellion. One night, grand opera singers of the day. That was the knock-out. Jean de Reszke, during the summer of 1862, a detachment of Oeneral Kirb> Smiths troops whom Emerson imitated, never sang better than Billy did that night, and I clashed with a portion of the Fe».^‘ral believe had Caruso been before the public at that time he would have ran forces near Richmond, Ky. second to Emerson. When he struck those high notes—wow! That audi- “In the very center of this dark bat- ence simply went crazy. No, son. the mammoth minstrel companies of to-day tiefield, so the story goes stood the f -/■«—> don’t figure with this Cleveland aggregation.” house of Peter \Van an der Hausen, an i old Dutchman, who wa.s noted among O' Mr. Tunis F. Dean, manager of The Warrens of Virginia Company, has his neighbors for being the laziest a habit of scribbling his first name (Tunis) In rather illegible fashion. man in that section. ^ "f Thereby hangs this tale: Recently Mr. Dean called at a well-known “So, around this house, struggling ^ furrier’s on Fifth avenue. New York back and forth through the Holland- S-'"" " ^ er’s garden of weeds and wild flowers *■ i-“ ■'—‘ -■' and bought some furry garments to ' 'i the two hostile forces fiercely battled, while the darkness was riven by the brave the wintry winds. A little later ' y - flash of muskets and the roar of artillery. in the day he received a letter from HMtHW ® “The next morning, as soon as th*- neighboring farmers dared poke the same firm addre.ssed to “MUs F. ^ ^ \/'i/■>/'// their ntxses out of doors, they hurried over to old Peter’s to see if, by happy Dean,” inviting her—or him—to drop ^ fate, he were yet alive. Entering the bullet-riddled house and flying up the Into their store and look over their stairs, they burst into Peter’s bedroom, horror depicted on their faces. What fur bargains. was their amazentent, however, to behold the Hollander snoring as if sleej) It is the custom of some New York - ^ ^ merchants to get the names of theat- ^^.irtrrr - -J were the one and only joy in life.

Load more